Soccer Analyst for Fox Soccer Report and Fox Soccer News 24/7 from 2001 to 2013 and I can now be seen on Soccer Central in Canada. I have been a soccer writer and broadcaster for over 20 years and I have followed the world's game for as long as I care to remember. I also write a regular column at soccerly.com.

How The 2022 World Cup Could Reach A Doomsday Scenario

The Sunday Times story of “Mohamed bin Hamman’s secret campaign to bring the World Cup to the Gulf,” is another episode in a narrative that that will not die.

The series of articles published earlier today details the lengths that Bin Hamman, a former FIFA vice-president, is accused of going to in order to secure the rights to the 2022 World Cup for his country.

Qatar has continually rejected accusations that Bin Hamman had any official role in the Qatar 2022 bid committee and further, that the successful bid was won by illegal means.

Bin Hamman was banned by FIFA in 2011 after being accused of bribing CONCACAF officials as part of his bid to unseat FIFA President Sepp Blatter. CONCACAF President and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner was snared in the same trap and resigned in 2011 before FIFA could act to ban him.

The Sunday Times claim that the latest revelations have been sourced through a FIFA insider who provided the London-based paper with “hundreds of millions documents” showing secret payments totaling “more than” $5M by Bin Hamman to “senior football officials” in a bid to help Qatar to win the right to host the World Cup in 2022.

The level of detail quoted in the series of articles is astounding and could only have been attained by someone at the highest levels of FIFA and someone with contacts and informants from around the globe.

The allegations come on the eve of a meeting between Michael Garcia and Qatar officials. Garcia is a US attorney tasked in July 2012 by the FIFA executive to investigate ethics abuse within the world governing body.

In addition, Qatar has been under intense scrutiny for its human rights record and for lax workplace health and safety practices that have led to scores of construction workers being killed or injured in the Gulf State.

Then there is the issue of when the tournament will actually be played.

The Qatar bid for 2022 was based on a June-July schedule as were the other bids from Australia, Japan, South Korea and the USA. Since the award in 2010 the claim by Qatar that the stadiums would be air conditioned to cool the 50 degree summer heat has been found to be about as possible as their team winning the World Cup in 2014.

A move to a “winter” schedule is now seen as the only viable option if players and spectators are to participate and attend in a safe environment. But even then there are significant problems. A change in season will require an extensive shut down of some of the world’s major leagues – particularly in Europe – and there is also the 2022 Winter Olympics to consider. (Bidders for that event are dropping like players in Qatar summer heat but that is another story for another day.)

While complaints from European leagues might receive short shrift and be waved off as if coming from brats, it is harder to do the same to broadcasters who deliver hundreds of millions of dollars to the FIFA treasury each cycle.

A decision on the 2022 schedule may be made in March of next year but the Sunday Times’ bombshell, Garcia’s on-going investigation and discontent from wealthy leagues and broadcasters may derail the timeline.

The 2022 bid was the first time that a decision was made in conjunction with another decision – in this case the host for 2018. It meant that rather than the normal 7-year cycle from award to kick-off, Qatar actually were given 12 years to prepare.

Although the original logic was highly flawed it may yet prove to be a god-send if a re-vote is needed. If such a re-vote was sanctioned and complete before the end of 2015 the winning bid would only have 12 months less than normal to prepare and to bring their plans to fruition.

Since the story was published there have been countless calls for such a re-vote. There have also been countless conclusions jumped to and based on nothing more than cursory reviews of the story about the story.

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